mom’s Chana masala

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 chopped yellow onion
• 2 tablespoon garlic ginger paste (equal parts garlic and ginger pureed in a food processor, or about 4-5 cloves garlic and 1 inch ginger minced)
• 1/2 seranno chili minced (seeds optional for spice)
• 1 roma tomato chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriandor
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder (optional for spice)
• 1 or 2 russet potatoes cut into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
• 2 cups dried chickpeas (soaked overnight)
• 1.5 cups water
• fresh cilantro and yogurt for garnish

My mom makes her chana masala using dried and soaked chickpeas cooked in a traditional pressure cooker, so I had her show me how to make it in my instant pot using the pressure cook setting. I will leave notes below if you want to try it with canned chickpeas or if you do not have a pressure cooker. You will basically start by making a sauce or “gravy,” as my mom calls it, in one pot on the stove, and end by transferring the sauce + chickpeas and potatoes to the instant pot to pressure cook. You could also make the gravy in the instant pot on the saute setting, but I feel like it could become burned more easily this way.

Recipe

1. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pot and add cumin seeds. Once seeds begin to pop, add onion and saute until soft.
2. Add garlic ginger paste and chopped tomato, seranno pepper, turmeric, black pepper, salt, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and chili powder. Stir until the mixture is very soft.
3. Add 1.5 cups of water to the spice mixture.
4. Add chickpeas and potatoes to the instant pot, and cover it with the water/ spice mixture
5. Set instant pot to high for 45 minutes on high, set to slow release once done.
6. The chickpeas and potatoes should be in a thick sauce like gravy, if you see too much water, you can hit saute on the instant pot to cook out water until your desired consistency.
7. Serve with roti or naan and garnish with plain yogurt and cilantro

Recipe notes or alterations

• If you do not have cumin seeds, you can substitute with another aromatic whole spice such as whole black pepper, cinnamon stick, or cloves. If you have none of these, just skip this and go straight to sauteing onion. Do not substitute with more cumin powder as the flavors are distinct and can become easily overpowered.
• There is not a great substitute for coriandor, but I know it is a spice that is less common in households. At the very least, you should be able to make this dish with cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, and of course salt and pepper.
• If you forget to soak chickpeas or just want to make this recipe a bit more on a whim, you can flash boil your chickpeas for 30 minutes. The main reason for soaking them overnight is they need to expand quite a bit to cook, so this helps them cook faster. Also note that chickpeas will expand to about double their size when soaking so choose the right sized pot for their growth.
• You can certainly make these with canned and if you do not have an instant pot. (Though I highly recommend trying to make them with dried if possible!) Just add your chickpeas and potatoes to the pot along with water and let simmer until the potatoes are soft, around 10-15 minutes.